Have the democrats ever maneuvered for a one party system?

[Pacifist Patriot]

I'm not naive. I do realize that maintaining a majority is every political party's wet dream. But despite my adherence to liberal values I cannot imagine an America in which a far left party had such total control as to completely subjugate the opposition. That thought is as discomforting as what we are experiencing today.

Would you be comfortable if the democrats held the majority in all three branches of government and still pressed for more, more, more?

[seabeyond]

1. would bother me, i would have to then switch to the other side

nature of the beast.

[atreides1]

2. I would not be comfortable with it

I've always felt that there should be a balance, so that instead of pulling the stunts that people like Frist and Delay have been doing,
you actually have a dialog.

[NewJeffCT]

3. I'm sure we tried...

FDR trying to pack the Supreme Court stands out... though, I'm not sure what the makeup of Congress was at the time.

Power does corrupt and I'm sure if we controlled all 3 branches to the amazing extent that Republicans do (I think I read that 10 of the 13 federal courts are Republican-controlled, and they have appointed 7 of the 9 Supremes), we'd probably be doing similar to what the RW is doing now, though I don't think we'd be nearly as bad as them.

[punpirate]

4. I think the closest...

... Democrats have come to that situation was Roosevelt's attempt to stack the Supreme Court, in which he didn't succeed.

The Republicans certainly felt as if they had little say in government during the early years of Roosevelt's term in office, but it was their own damned fault--years of poor monetary policy and lack of oversight, scandals, depression, etc. The voting public was genuinely fed up with them and gave the Democrats the opportunity to repair the system--and the Democrats did.

Maybe that's the fundamental difference today--Republicans want a mandate and total control to ruin the system once again.

But, I doubt the Democrats will ever demand of each other the sort of totalitarian conformity that seems apparent among Republicans today. These days, that's seen as a failure, but with a different bunch of Republicans, it would not be.

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. "gave the Democrats the

opportunity to repair the system--and the Democrats"


I have to disagree. WWII solved the nations economic crisis.

[punpirate]

9. Actually, Andy...

... check the stats from that time. As for the depression, it was pretty much over by 1938 (though times were still difficult, particularly on farms), in considerable part due to temporary government employment programs such as the WPA, the CCC and the Rural Electrification program, and the changes in tax policy.

As for the economic crisis and its solutions, it wasn't just about war jobs alone. The New Deal created the oversight on the financial community which was completely absent up through the `29 crash and on through the bank failures of the early `30s. The changes in tax law took some of the financial pressure off the middle class, and programs such as FDIC protected their small bit of savings.

What all this new regulation and oversight did was provide a framework to prevent a new collapse of the financial system, which established a sounder basis for economic expansion.

Republicans--more recently with the help of Democrats--have been chipping away at that taxation, regulatory and oversight structure ever since. That's ultimately why we're headed for another collapse in the next few years.

How're you feeling? Surgery go okay?

Cheers.

[SteppingRazor]

6. Of course...

FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court. Nuff said.

[theboss]

7. Roosevelt tried to some degree

His move to stack the Supreme Court was as blatant a power grab as any President has tried. And he did this when he had huge majorities.

The main difference is that the Democratic Party was pretty split in that era between Northerners and Southerners.

[info being]

8. Yes, every time they talk about bi-partisanship, that's what they're doing